The candle
by pamy
Summary: There's a scene in Little Women in which one of the sister's dies, but you don't see her die. Instead a single candle is blown out by the wind.


Based on another prompt being Lilly, the candle. Don't own anything.

* * *

There is a scene in _Little Women _in which one of the sisters dies (_she thinks it was Beth, but she's not sure)_; but you don't see her die on the screen, instead a single candle is blown out by the wind. Indicating that she has died, that her spirit has left the room; the candle represents the flame of live, which is blown out by death itself. At least that's what her mother told her, when Lilly had asked her why. Even now, so many years later, she believes that, even if since then she has stopped believing in anything else her mother told her. Since that moment she notices that the image of a blown out candle to represent death, is used quite a lot in movies. _Of course it may be that she's imagining this because of what her mother told her, but it's not like it matters anyway. _

She hasn't seen that movie since she was a child, she supposes she grew out of it, or maybe she was never that into it in the first place. It's not like she could identify with any of the characters anyway, not with the relationships between the sisters, not with the poverty, with nothing at all. Still the image of the blown out candle stayed with her, through her entire live; she remembered it when her grandmother died, wondering (_as the ten-year-old child she was)_ if somewhere a candle had been blown out. She grew up, she moved on, the images of the movies she once saw faded away, _except of course for that damn candle. _

Live changes, people do as well, and yet the image of the blown out candle stayed with her through it all.

*****

Every little girl in the world eventually grows up; movies, stories and fairytales are soon left behind. Still sometimes at night – _when she really couldn't sleep – _she tried to see if now that she was older and understood the story better, she could identify with any of the characters. She still couldn't seem to find anything to connect with tough, admittedly she might be thinking to hard about this, _and what does it matter anyway? _But she can't help but think about it, and she ends up at the same conclusion always, there are more differences than similarities. She doesn't have sisters (_she has a brother, it's not exactly the same thing tough); _no close relationship with her mother (_actually no relationship at all, unless screaming and silence treatments count as a relationship) _and her father was never away at war (_though sometimes it did seem that way, seeing how much he had actually been absent during her short life). _But still what does any of it matter?

When they were little children they used to pretend to be characters in books (her and Veronica that is), it had been one of their favorite games. When they played _Little Women (which didn't happen very often, in fact Lilly is sure they only played it once, and they didn't last very long)_; Veronica identified herself with Beth (_the gentle one, the shy one) _it wasn't really hard to see why. Lilly always found it hard to pick a character, to identify with someone; in the end she always went with Meg (the oldest, she remembered being rich, she was vain), Lilly felt she was most like her, if she had to choose that is.

In the end whichever one they identified with, doesn't really matter anymore.

*****

She's never believed much about heaven, nor any of the stories they tell about death; but she did always believe that your entire live flashes in front of your eyes when you die. She expected to see boyfriends, and little girls playing, and her brother, and so many other things. She got none of this, she didn't see her live flash before her eyes, just like she didn't see the astray come until it was far to late. Instead as she swirls around, as the world goes out of focus and eventually turns red, there's only one thing she can see. One image that flutters beneath her eyelids, _the last image she'll ever see,_ before she hits the ground and her heart stops beating and it's all over. Before she falls of the world, _knowing it will keep turning without her, _and she goes to whatever comes next, she sees that damn candle.

All she sees (all she knows), is that there is a scene in _Little Women _in which one of the sister's dies, but you don't actually see her die, instead you see a single candle being blown out by the wind. The candle represents the flame of live, while the wind is (obviously) is death.

_The candle being blown out means the end of a live, she wonders if somewhere a candle is blown out for her. _

Somewhere else Veronica tries to light a single candle, she's always liked candles, but it takes a while for it to burn. Eventually the flame does burn and she smiles as she turns away from it, expecting a phone call from Lilly at any moment. She feels a cold wind; _which is strange and she's not sure where it came from, _because all the windows and doors are closed. She turns around, confused, and watches as the wind blows out the candle.

_Somewhere else Lilly Kane hits the ground, the image disappears and she dies. _


End file.
